National Programs

  • The sorority has a proud history of offering service wherever chapters exist.  Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated gives leadership, service, and resources toward removing barriers and inequalities so that all people of America may develop their potential and exercise full citizenship.  In its quest to expand its area of service, Sigma Gamma Rho actively participates in sponsoring national and international programs designed for the improved welfare of all people.  Below is a listing of our National Programs.

     

  • Operation BigBookBag

    OperationBigBookBag is a program designed to address the needs, challenges, and issues that face school-aged children who are educationally at-risk in local homeless shelters and extended-care hospitals and facilities. Through this program, chapters and members collect and donate educational materials, equipment, and school supplies.

     

    Our goal is to:

    • Provide quick and easy access to reference materials and other studying aids and tools that will help students with educational endeavors.
    • Equip students with the means of completing their homework assignments in an effort to keep them current and up to date.
    • Assist shelters, youth centers, schools, and hospitals in their efforts to meet some of the educational needs of children and young adults housed at their facilities.
 

  • Women's Wellness Initiative

    The Women's Wellness Initiative is a consolidated effort that allows chapters to focus on health issues that impact women, specifically women of color. The Women's Wellness Initiative was developed after the Sorority participated in the New York United Nations/March of Dimes Prematurity Awareness panel. Acceptable educational and programmatic efforts under this Initiative include, but are not limited to, Breast Cancer Awareness, Intimate and Domestic Violence, Heart Health, Diabetes Health, Mental Health, and other issues that target women. WWI programs can be conducted at any time during the sorority year.

    Our goal is to:

    • Encourage women to maintain a healthy lifestyle and minimize health risks
    • Empower women to make informed decisions about their physical, mental, and emotional health
    • Ensure there is a representative number of African American women in health studies

  • Project Cradle Care
    Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority’s Project CRADLE Care is one of our essential programs designed to raise awareness of disparate and inequitable maternal and infant health outcomes Black women endure through community outreach, advocacy, education, and implicit bias training. In so doing, we aim to mitigate outcome and life-course disparities in our communities.

    Through Project CRADLE Care, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. and the March of Dimes collaborate to address the issues that adversely affect Black women and their children, ranging from chronic physiological stressors and underlying health conditions to structural racism and implicit biases in our healthcare system. 

  • Swim 1922

    Swim 1922 was created to address the unfortunate truth that according to the CDC, approximately 10 people drown every day in the U.S.A. An even more startling fact is that 70 percent of African American children and 60 percent of Hispanic children in the U.S. do not know how to swim. Additionally, African American children are three times more likely to drown than Caucasian children. Through the partnership with USA Swimming, Sigma Gamma Rho’s Swim 1922 campaign aims to address this disparity by having. Olympians and members of the sorority teach the community about water safety and how to swim. With USA Swimming, Sigma Gamma Rho has touched close to 20,000 lives directly, with the projection of changing multiple generations to come. Swim 1922 programs are conducted during May-August of the sorority year.

    Our goal is to strengthen USA Swimming’s commitment to diversity and inclusion by breaking down barriers created by a lack of access and exposure and expanding our footprint in the local community to increase swim participation and decrease drowning rates.

    Program Benefits:

    • Provides opportunities for youth and adults within the African-American community to learn water safety in general and swimming specifically.
    • Reduces the level of fear and apprehension of learning to swim.
    • Opens minds and changes attitudes regarding Blacks and swimming.

  • Annual Youth Symposium
    Held simultaneously on the second Saturday of March by Alumnae Chapters nationwide, our Youth Symposium serves as a unifying effort during Sigma Week. The Symposium (supported by undergraduate chapters and affiliates) is designed to highlight some of the prevalent concerns that negatively impact our youth (drugs, teen violence, abuse, low self-esteem, suicide, teen pregnancy, human trafficking, etc.).

     

    Our goal is to be relevant in the lives of our youth.

    Program Benefits:

    • Improved educational outcomes.
    • Improved behavioral outcomes.
    • A highly anticipated annual event supported by local communities.